Game Preview: Lakers vs Hawks

The Lakers take on the Atlanta Hawks tonight in Los Angeles, with Atlanta coming off an impressive win last night over the Clippers. The Lakers are coming off another disappointing loss to the Warriors, and now look likely to end up as the 9th or 10th seed with less than a month left in the season.

Anthony Davis is questionable with the eye injury he sustained versus the Warriors Saturday night. LeBron James is questionable as well. Cam Reddish, Gabe Vincent, Christian Wood, Jarred Vanderbilt and Colin Castleton all remain out.

Play with Energy

LA has a very light schedule this week. After tonight’s game they don’t play again until Friday. They must come out with energy early, especially against an Hawks team on a back-to-back. The Lakers have suffered a few disappointing losses in the past couple of weeks and need to make sure they have no more slip ups in games they should be winning. Whether Anthony Davis can play or not, LA has to come out with a better effort collectively – especially on defense. They need a win tonight before they head on a three-day break.

Contain Murray

With no Trae Young for Atlanta the Lakers’ focus should be on one guy, Dejounte Murray. Murray was heavily linked with the Lakers at February’s trade deadline but no deal materialized. Murray has become a three-level scorer and LA will have to make the right adjustments to make sure he doesn’t have the kind of incredible game De‘Aaron Fox had a couple of weeks ago.

Tip off is 7:30 PST, as the Lakers look to bounce back from their tough loss over the weekend with a much needed win against Atlanta.